ABSTRACT
Cell transplantation for therapeutic angiogenesis Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality, requiring bypass surgery or angioplasty in almost 1 000 000 patients/year in the USA. While some of these patients form collateral vessels as alternative pathways for blood supply, thus ameliorating or preventing ischemic myocardial damage, many are not able to develop adequate vascular networks to compensate for the loss of the original blood supply. Accordingly, many patients could be helped by the development of practical approaches that would accelerate the natural processes of postnatal collateral vessel formation. Such approaches are broadly referred to as ‘therapeutic angiogenesis’, and encompass both angiogenesis (which, strictly speaking, refers to capillary sprouting) and arteriogenesis (the maturation and enlargement of existing vessels).1, 2 Within this chapter, angiogenesisis used in the broad sense to refer to collateral vessel formation at all stages.
